‘98 Tonganoxie grad excels at college

Melissa Legg, a 1998 Tonganoxie High School graduate, has been selected as one of 38 high-achieving students at the 19 community colleges in Kansas.

Legg, who attends Kansas City Kansas Community College, is one of the most active students on the college's campus. Her involvement and her outstanding academic performance have earned her a berth on the All-Kansas Academic Team for 1999-2000.

She and other team members were honored last month at a luncheon in Topeka hosted by the community college presidents.

As a member of the team, Legg is also a candidate for the 30-member All-American Community College team to be selected by USA Today.

Legg was not involved in many activities in high school, where she belonged only to the Foreign Language Club.

At KCKCC, she's active with Phi Theta Kappa, a group in which she might achieve an international office.

She currently is vice president of leadership for Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society for two-year colleges.

Her work with Phi Theta Kappa included setting up a fall leadership conference that resulted in the very successful "Challenge 2000: Kansas Kids Read and Count" program that has reached more than 4,000 first- through third-graders in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties.

Her other student activities include Student Senate representative; vice president and president of Campus Forum; president of the Council for Academic Excellence; and vice president of the Drama Club.

She's also a member of the college Jazz Band and has performed as an actress in four KCKCC theatre productions and served as stage manager of a fifth, earning the Excellence in the Study of Theatre Award for 1999 and the Phi Theta Kappa Outstanding Leadership Award.

Carrying a double major in theater and architecture, Legg has a 3.78 grade-point average and has been on the National Dean's List both years at KCKCC. On top of all that, she's been a work study student in the Honors Program since enrolling as a freshman.

"I love doing it all so I try to fit in as much as I can," says Legg. "I think acting classes really helped me out plus working in the Honors Program opened me up to many new things that I wanted to get involved with."

Her plans were to major only in architecture and then transfer to Kansas State University after two years, but that changed after taking acting and theater classes under the direction of Dr. Charles Leader.

A Presidential Scholarship recipient, she is following two sisters, Melinda and Michelle, and a brother, Michael, in graduating from KCKCC. There's one more brother, Matthew, a senior at Tonganoxie.

"It was mainly for economics at first, but it's been a lot more than I expected, a lot more," says Legg. "You get a lot more individual attention. The classes are smaller, and the faculty is so smart that I think you learn a lot more in that environment."

To complete her double major will require another semester, but she may be around KCKCC even longer. She's announced her candidacy for International Vice President of Phi Theta Kappa. If elected, she would spend the next year attending and presiding over various activities in the largest of the three Phi Theta Kappa regions in the United States.

"Even if I don't get elected, I know I'll learn so much from campaigning," she says. "I still plan on going to K-State, and I would like to do some summer acting."